How Many Women Are On Your Board?

The Canadian Security Administrators (CSA) has released their report on the number of women who sit on the board of Canadian public companies.

As the Globe and Mail reported: “In the CSA’s first review, it found that women held 11 per cent of total board seats. In the study released last Thursday, that number increased to 14 per cent. Strikingly, almost 40 per cent of companies still have no women on their boards, and only 35 per cent reported having a written diversity policy.”

This review only applies to public companies but it is still interesting for the rest of us. I would suggest that non-profit boards have a higher percentage of women than 14%.

As far as a diversity policy, would it be a good start to try and match the diversity of the stakeholders with the diversity on the board? If 40% of the stakeholders are female then the board should be 40% female. Same rule could apply to race and geography. If 50% of your stakeholders are in a rural area – then 50% or so of your board members should come from rural areas.